Home – Sydney to London

17th and 18th December That’s a long way. That’s still a really long way. You never think about the distance from home when you’re out having fun, but faced with the prospect of 30 hours in the air it suddenly becomes all too real. Of course the situation wasn’t helped by the fact that we…

The beginning of the end – Cairns to Sydney

16th December Today’s the day. The beginning of the journey home. Goodbye to all the toiletries, goodbye to our disgusting towels, goodbye to Calypso, goodbye to Abi and Steph who would be continuing their Australian adventure! We’ll miss you two crazy ladies.  With lighter bags and heavy hearts we arrived at the airport the same…

‘So many languages I’m lost in translation’ – Cairns

14th and 15th December After last night not much was on the cards for today. It was raining and we were shattered. So we headed to the shopping centre, at least it was undercover and out of the slowly worsening weather. Slumped outside Santa’s grotto we ran into Tom and the Canadian girls who are…

‘Ich bin Schnappi’ – Ocean Safari to Mackay Reef and Cairns

13th December At the very beginning of our trip in Australia, back in Sydney, our taxi driver let us into a little secret of his. That off the coast of Cape Tribulation there was the most incredible reef, said to have inspired the Pixar film, Finding Nemo. We could dive in Cairns, he said, but…

‘Now those are some salsa knees’ – Cape Tribulation

12th December  Today we would become 4 once again as Alice left our ranks to go back to England. First though we had a morning horse ride booked through the rainforest and onto the beach, something I had been looking forward to since Sydney.  We were picked up at our hostel at 8am and driven…

‘Get me a crocodile now, and make it snappy’ – Cairns to Cape Tribulation

11th December Oh. Oh wow. We never learn our lessons. Regardless of our incredibly early morning start we still decided it was a good idea to drink gin the previous night. Most of us, however, were still on the bus heading for the rainforest at five to seven. But not before  the driver had ‘ummed’…

Let’s find Nemo – The Great Barrier Reef

10th December Today was dive day! Today we heading out into the big blue and we WERE going to see a turtle. Of this we were certain. So once again we were up early after very little sleep ready to hit the Great Barrier Reef. We arrived only slightly late, sweaty, red faced, and stressed…

The wheels on the bus go bang! – Mission Beach to Cairns

9th December  Tender from the night before, it was with great effort that we packed our bags for what would be our last greyhound bus.   Tori was revelling in the fact that the previous night she had got another free dinner and even had the leftovers in a Tupperware box for the journey. That’s…

‘Get jiggy with it’ – Mission Beach

7th and 8th December On the move again. Townsville to Mission Beach. In my head Mission Beach was a bustling seaside town with quirky cafés in which to observe the popular skydive but as we pulled in it became apparent it was a lot less. A small strip with some bars and fish restaurant, and…

Hanging around in hammocks – Magnetic Island to Townsville

5th – 6th December On the agenda today? The possibilities are endless. We could walk along the beach, we could top up our tans by the pool, we could recline in hammocks, or we could drink in our very own beach bar. At one point or another we achieved all of these goals and we…

What’s the attraction?- Airlie Beach to Magnetic Island

3rd and 4th December  Time to see what Airlie beach has to offer. Our night stroll had shown us the town’s lagoon and so we headed there for a day of topping up the sun tan and generally chilling out.  First thing first – Alice get out that dingo infested tennis ball and let’s play…

A lovely bunch of coconuts – Whitsundays to Airlie Beach

2nd December Two hours after we went to bed it was time to get up, get our trainers back on and go on a hike through South Molle Island’s National Park.  Looking around it was clear to see that we weren’t the only people feeling a little delicate this morning.  With Jacques leading the way,…